Renewal of planktonic foraminifera diversity after the Cretaceous Paleogene mass extinction by benthic colonizers

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Morard, Raphaël, Hassenrück, Christiane, Greco, Mattia, Fernandez-Guerra, Antonio, Rigaud, Sylvain, Douady, Christophe, Kucera, Michal
• Other Authors: MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences (IO-PAN), Polska Akademia Nauk = Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Faculty of Science Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH)-University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH)-Faculty of Science Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH)-University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH), 52, chemin de Claret, F-05700 Serres, Équipe 3 - Écologie, Évolution, Écosystemes Souterrains (E3S), Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Naturels et Anthropisés (LEHNA), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (ENTPE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (ENTPE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (M.E.N.E.S.R.)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03871717; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34794-5

International audience Abstract The biotic crisis following the end-Cretaceous asteroid impact resulted in a dramatic renewal of pelagic biodiversity. Considering the severe and immediate effect of the asteroid impact on the pelagic environment, it is remarkable that some of the most affected pelagic groups, like the planktonic foraminifera, survived at all. Here we queried a surface ocean metabarcoding dataset to show that calcareous benthic foraminifera of the clade Globothalamea are able to disperse actively in the plankton, and we show using molecular clock phylogeny that the modern planktonic clades originated from different benthic ancestors that colonized the plankton after the end-Cretaceous crisis. We conclude that the diversity of planktonic foraminifera has been the result of a constant leakage of benthic foraminifera diversity into the plankton, continuously refueling the planktonic niche, and challenge the classical interpretation of the fossil record that suggests that Mesozoic planktonic foraminifera gave rise to the modern communities.